John F. Olson

John F. Olson joined the faculty as a Distinguished Visitor From Practice in 2007.  Previously, Mr. Olson was the Distinguished Visiting Practitioner in Residence at Cornell Law School and taught corporate
governance at Northwestern University School of Law.  At Georgetown, he teaches an advanced seminar
in securities regulation and a seminar on governance of non-profit organizations.  He is a member of the
International Reference Team for Company Law Reform in South Africa.

A frequent lecturer at legal and business seminars, Professor Olson co-chairs various seminars on an
annual basis.  He is on the planning committee for the San Diego Securities Regulation Institute and the advisory committee for the Practicing Law Institute's Annual Securities Regulation Institute.  He is the author of more than 100 articles and a member of the editorial advisory boards for a variety of securities and corporate law publications.  Professor Olson is the co-author of Director and Officer Liability: 
Indemnification and Insurance, published by West Publishing (revised 2002) and has edited several other books on securities law issues.

In the American Bar Association (ABA), Professor Olson served for five years (2000 – 2005) as
Chairman of the Business Law Section's Committee on Corporate Governance, and was also a member of the Task Force on Corporate Responsibility appointed by the President of the ABA.  Previously, he
was Chairman of the ABA's Committee on Federal Regulation of Securities (1991-1995).  He is a member of the Executive Council of the Securities Committee of the Federal Bar Association.

For the ABA, Professor Olson also chaired the Task Force on Regulation of Insider Trading, which
produced a comprehensive analysis of and report on U.S. insider trading law, and he chaired the Task Force which has produced the third (2001) and fourth (2004) editions of The Corporate Director's Guidebook.  He served for eighteen years as a member of and liaison to the ABA's Committee on Corporate Laws, and served as a Council member and member of the Publications Board of the ABA's Business Law Section.  He served for nine years on the Legal Advisory Committee of the New York Stock Exchange and was a member of the Legal Advisory Board of the National Association of Securities Dealers.  He was a Founding Trustee of the American College of Investment Counsel.  In 1987, he served on a select committee of leading securities lawyers, appointed by the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, which drafted insider trading legislation introduced in the United States Congress.

Professor Olson was a founding partner of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher's Washington, D.C. office.  Mr. Olson has extensive experience in general representation of business organizations as to corporate governance, corporate securities, corporate finance and merger and acquisition matters.  He has counseled many boards of directors and board committees on governance issues and in assessing shareholder litigation, responding to business combination proposals and conducting internal investigations.  He also has represented firms and individuals in defense of Securities and Exchange Commission and other governmental investigations.  At Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, Professor Olson led a team of the firm's lawyers which advised the Board of the American Red Cross on a comprehensive audit of its
governance practices.  In both 2010 and 2011, based on BTI Consulting's independent surveys of 200 corporate general counsel, he was named one of a small number of national Client Service All
Stars for his "true thought leadership; innovation; creativity applied to the client; focused, practical problem-solving; valued counsel; responsiveness and accessibility; total commitment to the client".  
In December 2009 and again in 2011, Washingtonian Magazine named him one of Washington's Top Lawyers for securities law.  In 2009, 2010, and 2011, he was selected by the National Association of
Corporate Directors and Directorship magazine as one of the "Directorship 100:The Most Influential People in the Boardroom" in the U.S.  He has been named by the International Financial Law Review as a Leading Lawyer in US Mergers & Acquisitions and is listed in Who's Who of Corporate Governance Lawyers by Who's Who Legal.  He has been regularly ranked one of the top securities advisory attorneys in the District of Columbia by Chambers USA America's Leading Business Lawyers.  He has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America® for corporate, securities, and governance work in every edition published since its inception more than 25 years ago.